Ghost Detective: Book V Death in the Shadows: Ghost Detective, #5

By lost lodge press

Veteran police officers Sally Edwards and her partner Layton Roland were crossing town at high speed responding to a report of a shooting when their cruiser was rammed from the side by an armed robber fleeing the scene of a crime. Roland was concussed but Edwards suffered a partially severed spinal cord in her neck. 
After a seemingly miraculous recovery from a coma and certain death she’s pulled off life support only to suffer a stroke leaving her a quadriplegic. Yet somewhere between death’s door and the debilitating stroke her spirit is freed from the attachment to her body. Her spirit now moves freely between officer Edwards waking hours, her slumber and whenever she releases it to do her bidding in the world of mortals. Layton Roland was her partner on the force for ten years and her lover. He moves Edwards and a private nurse, Willy Washington, into an old ski lodge.
When Roland pushes through the teeth of a snow storm in pursuit of Pool of Tears murderer, Bobby Jack, the battle between god and evil ends with the lodge burning to the ground police Captain Dennis Walters dead, Officer Edwards back in the hospital in a coma, and Bobby Jack still on the lose.

• Language: English
• Publisher: lost lodge press
• Release date: Mar 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386105671

Book preview

Veteran police officer Sally Edwards and her partner Layton Roland were crossing town at high speed responding to a report of a shooting when their cruiser was rammed from the side by an armed robber fleeing the scene the crime. Roland was concussed but Edwards suffered a partially severed spinal cord in her neck.

After a seemingly miraculous recovery from a coma and certain death she’s pulled off life support only to suffer a stroke leaving her a quadriplegic. Yet somewhere between death’s door and the debilitating stroke her spirit is freed from the attachment to her body. Her spirit now moves freely between officer Edwards waking hours, her slumber and whenever she releases it to do her bidding in the world of mortals. Layton Roland was her partner on the force for ten years and her lover. He moves Edwards and a private nurse, Willy Washington, into an old ski lodge.

When Roland pushes through the teeth of a snow storm in pursuit of Pool of Tears murderer, Bobby Jack, the battle between god and evil ends with the lodge burning to the ground Officer Edwards back in the hospital in a coma and Bobby Jack still on the lose.

Cheryl Tubs had never felt very adventures. Through high school she was overweight, was never asked to the prom, and never had a boy friend. But all that had changed in her second year of college. She grew two inches, and the extra weight seemed to fall off.  Even her voice got a little deeper and she filled out the top of all her bathing suits. Now she turned heads just going to the grocery store though she still wasn’t very adventures. She’d met a young man that second year. Tim. He’d come to Oregon’s Portland State from Georgia high on a wrestling scholarship.  They’d met in chemistry where his slower speech and soft tones were hypnotic .At first they went to the same study groups where she would hang on his every word. One day he simply asked her out.

He was easy to be with, always the gentleman. Holding the door and of all things insisting on paying for meals or a movie. He liked to hold hands and they kissed a lot but he never pushed it any further. He challenged her with dares. Climb a tree, roll up your pants and walk barefoot across lemon creek. He took her kayaking and horseback riding. The scariest was the zip line at Larch mountain north of Portland. When they went caving he was there with her the entire way. When Tim mentioned visiting Portland’s fabled witches castle Cheryl was up for it but when he wanted to go at dusk, a time when the hauntings were rumored to occur she wasn’t so sure she wanted to go.

Cheryl sat at what they thought of as their table at the Out Pouring cafe and coffee shop. She was playing with her coffee mug when time entered. She looked up in time to watch him walk through the door. He was wearing her favorite T-shirt that clung to his biceps and accentuated his powerful chest and shoulders.

He stopped just inside the coffee shop, spotted Cheryl, gave her a wave then walked to the counter to place his order.

He was wearing jeans and she found herself watching his butt. She was ready to take the relationship to the next level and briefly pondered wether his fly was a zipper or button, blushed and pushed the thought to the back of her mind, startled a bit when he came up to the table.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.

I was just thinking about the witches castle. She lied.

Tonight’s the night. You up for it.

She nodded.

Good, because I packed a butt pack, it’s about an hour drive to the trail head, then a two hour hike.

He looked down at the base of the table where one of her booted feet was visible. You need to change or anything? It could get a little cool when the sun goes down.

No. She said, and lifted a heavy duty sweat shirt with a hood from the bench seat beside her. I’ll be fine. She  unrolled it to reveal a 12 inch mag light. I’m ready.

He grinned his approval and sat across from her at the square table and quietly sipped his coffee. She liked the fact that he didn’t try and fill every minute with chatter though sometimes it was unnerving.

What are you thinking.

He looked up from the center of the table and smiled. I’m kind of excited about checking out the witches castle.

She’d heard rumors about an abandoned stone structure on Larch mountain, not far from the old ski lodge, and how it was haunted.

Is it really a castle?

He shook his head to the negative and sipped his coffee. "I don’t know where the idea of a castle came from.  There were two sisters, Shirley and Shelly lived on the mountain in an old shack with their mother. It’s said they had a falling out and one moved to Lafayette